elections | The Direction of Intention

Listen To The Plumes [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on October 16, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

The plumes came early this year. The tall grasses are signaling to us that winter is coming sooner rather than later. 20 concurs. He insists that the almanac foretells of a long winter. I’ve not checked out the almanac for myself but am sufficiently satisfied to listen to the plumes.

Our cities are filling up with the military and ICE. They are signaling to us that a fascist winter is coming sooner rather than later. As Steve said, “Most people I talk to are now in agreement: there may not be another election, at least not one that’s legitimate.” I’ve not seen the masked militiamen myself but I recognize what they bode.

Responding to a post about my confusion, Linda recently wrote, “These are actual Nazis now, David. You have not been wrong…” She thanked me for speaking up. I remember in 2016, sitting at her kitchen island, she warned that this man in the White House was a fascist. “He’s no different than Hitler,” she said. At the time I wondered if she was being too extreme. I thought our democracy was strong. I had faith that, if pushed, the republicans would side with the Constitution. Now I know that she was like a plume, she saw the signals and was warning of the coming storm.

Our challenge now: how to meet this storm and keep our humanity intact? How do we combat this level of abhorrence, this degree of corruption – and not become the thing we hate?

read Kerri’s blog about THE PLUMES

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, augury, Constitution, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, elections, foreboding, free and fair elections, humanity, ice, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Nazis, story, studio melange, the melange, winter | 1 Comment »

The Number One Need [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on September 1, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Recently we wrote about the ubiquitous question, “What can I do?” We-the-people are under assault by a government racing toward fascism and often find ourselves frozen in disbelief. John Pavlovitz’s answer to the question is to look local. Find a local need and fill it. A million small acts of kindness and support add up to a tsunami of good will across our injured landscape. It’s the Butterfly Effect.

It is also important to look nationally. Though we’re not hearing about it in the mainstream media, the Supremes are poised to strike a death-blow to democracy. They are hearing arguments to strike down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It is, as Mark Elias says, “A Five Alarm Fire” for our democracy.

On the list of needs, raising awareness of the importance of this assault on voters rights is urgent. It, too, is the Butterfly Effect. Erase protections from racial discrimination in voting and there will be no constitutional prohibition on the republican gerrymander. A tsunami of republican political manipulations will sweep across our land and essentially end free and fair elections for all of us. Pushing back, protesting, ringing the alarm on this assault on minority voter protection…is utmost on the list of needs.

The republicans are attempting to push through their SAVE ACT that places limits on voting rights. The repeal of The Voting Rights Act would essentially be the nail in democracy’s coffin.

Number one on our national list of needs: a republican party that actually believes in democracy. They work to restrict voter access to free and fair elections while openly scheming to rig elections so they will forever remain in power.

Perhaps the number one need is mainstream news sources that actually report the news. Where-oh-where has the free press gone?

With a corrupt Supreme court doing the bidding of the wanna-be-king that they made, with a goosestepping republican congress and a largely AWOL democratic congress, it seems that the buck stops with us. A million tiny actions, like ringing the alarm or taking to the streets…can lead to very large consequences. After all, democracy, a government of, by, and for the people is, in practice, The Butterfly Effect. Every single individual act – every individual vote in a free and fair election -when combined with millions of votes – can send a tsunami of good will across our injured land. But first we have to actively protect the integrity of our right to vote from a deeply rotten Supreme Court and a republican party that serves a corrupt man rather than the oath they swore to our Constitution.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE LIST OF NEEDS

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Filed under: Awakening, Edges, Merely A Thought Monday | Tagged: artistry, Brian Tyler Cohen, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, elections, free and fair elections, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Mark Elias, story, studio melange, supreme court, The Butterfly Effect, The Constitution of The United States, the melange, Voting Rights Act | 1 Comment »

Do! [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on July 16, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Since I asked a question in our most recent smack-dab, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind: “What actions – beyond awareness-raising – will effectively save our democracy…?”

If you are like me, you are sick-to-death of reading posts from our elected democratic leaders decrying the latest moral-offense and breach of the Constitution of the republican administration. It’s become something of a game to read the first comment which inevitably is something like, “I know this already! So what are you doing about it?”

The operative word is “do”. The question for our elected leaders should not absolve us of responsibility and would better read, “What are we doing about it?”

We are aware. What are we doing?

Raising awareness is not action. It’s a step toward action but is not itself a useful action. Crying, “The house is on fire!” is necessary but if it doesn’t prompt a call to the fire department it is useless.

When I asked the question on my saturday-morning-smack-dab post I did not have a clear set of answers. I know the first action-set has to protect our elections since the current occupant of the white house has been manufacturing crises since day one so he might circumvent congress. His authoritarian power grab is nearly complete. All that remains is to rig or stop our next election. His party is already erecting voting barriers to women and people of color.

I want to be inundated with posts from democratic leaders detailing potent action rather than shared-awareness-alarms.

I do not have answers. I have ideas. Lots of ideas. I’d welcome conversations about doing that arrive at specific actions aimed at specific targets. I’d cheer if our democratic leaders went on offense rather than perpetually playing defense, reacting and responding. Stop telling me the house is on fire. I already know. Take the ball back. What’s in the playbook?

The morning glories are out. They line sections of the trail. They have a very short blooming season and so have come to represent transience. They caught my attention as we walked and I pondered my question about effective action. Because the morning glory grows in complex environments, the flower has also come to represent the overcoming of adversity and renewal. Our democracy need not be fleeting.

I realized the morning glory is the perfect symbol for my meditation/question. Don’t take this – our democracy – for granted. It will die. Renewal is our job. We live in a time that our job requires immediate action, targeted action meant to overcome authoritarian/republican adversity.

The house is on fire. We already know it. We can stand by and tell each other about the heat of the flames or we can get busy working together to douse the flame.

read Kerri’s blogpost about MORNING GLORY

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Metaphor | Tagged: action, artistry, authoritarian, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, Do, elections, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, morning glory, raising awareness, renewal, story, studio melange, The Constitution of The United States, the melange, transience | 1 Comment »

For Real [David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab.]

Posted on November 16, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

What is real? It’s not so easy to answer this very simple question these days. With A-I manufacturing videos and images that seem real, with foreign interference in our elections, with a pathological liar about to once again take the national bully pulpit and a propaganda fox willing to magnify his hooey, with people believing tik-tok, X and instagram are sources of news…it is damn hard to know what is real. It’s damn hard to believe the dull-witted-ness in ascendence.

Who is real? This is a much more complex question. A heartbreaking question.

Post election we’re everywhere seeing and hearing from the maga-madcaps the phrase , “Family over politics”. Yet, a vote for the despot-elect was a vote against my son who is gay. A vote for the rapist-in-chief was a vote against my daughter’s rights. It was a vote against my wife’s rights. She was raped so it’s not a small thing to her that half the nation, including family and friends, seem okay to look the other way. To minimize his multiple sexual assaults as locker room talk. She feels deeply in her body – her soul – the national endorsement of rape. The national assent of sexual violence.

Every time she sees the phrase,”Family over politics,” Kerri hisses, “Back-at-you!” Real family, real friends would have thought to protect our children’s health and well-being before voting against them. They would have thought to protect our nation from an avowed fascist with retribution fantasies; they would have thought before voting against basic morality. They would have had the simple dignity to consider the sexual predation, the pathological lying and gross indecency of their candidate. Instead, they cheered. They voted for it. It’s left us nauseous with the question, “Are you for real?”

They put politics (if you can call it that) over family (if you can call it that). For real.

read Kerri’s blogpost about WHAT IS REAL

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Filed under: Family, smack-dab | Tagged: AI, artistry, bully pulpit, cartoon, civil rights, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, election, elections, family, fascism, fascist, foreign interference, interference, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, liar, politics, pro choice, propaganda, rapist, real, reality, rights, sexual predator, sexual violence, smack-dab, soul, story, studio melange, the melange, two artists, vote | 3 Comments »

Either Way [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on November 1, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Imaginary problems.

It is my personal favorite phrase – and point – pulled from Jimmy Kimmel’s special monologue for the republicans in our families. It’s an appeal to their sanity, a summary of the nonsensical incoherence and hate daily spewing from the mouth of their dictator wanna-be and his enablers.

He creates imaginary problems.

For instance: Imaginary problem: that there is rampant voter fraud in our elections. Reality: we have safe, fair, and free elections. There was no evidence of voter fraud in 2020. There is no evidence of voter fraud in 2024.

Other examples of a ridiculous and dangerous imaginary problem: immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Gangs of immigrants are taking over Aurora, Colorado. There are dangerous imaginary problems within the imaginary problem. For instance, immigrants are murderers and rapists set free from the world’s prisons and running amok in our nation. Or there is this: The border is an open door. In reality – yes, in reality – none of it is true.

The “invasion” rant, the immigrant-hate-speak we hear daily, the voter fraud screed…is nothing more or less than fearmongering. Fearmongering: (noun) the action of intentionally trying to make people afraid of something when this is not necessary or reasonable.

Imaginary problems are meant to make people afraid of something when it is not necessary or reasonable.

Imaginary problems cause real problems. Here is a real problem: A full 47% of our citizens are preparing to vote for the dissolution of our democracy. They are basing their vote on imaginary problems. They are voting for fascism as the way forward. That’s a real problem. They are voting for the end of the constitution, the promised use of the military to silence voices of opposition, the end of free and fair elections.

Real problem: People in a democracy are voting for fascism because they have been thoroughly steeped in the imaginary monsters set loose by the wanna-be-dictator and magnified by his X oligarch and the fox-megaphone. Very real problem: 47% of the voting public have lost faith in our system based on lies and imaginary problems; fear manufactured in order to sway them.

The monsters are imaginary. The hate and fear it invokes is very real.

The impact of the wild conspiracy theories and incessant lies aren’t imaginary. For instance, the refusal of the dictator-wanna-be to accept the results of the free and fair election of 2020 led to the deaths of 5 Capitol police officers. 140 police officers were injured by a mob responding to an imaginary problem. The families of the 5 officers who died viscerally know the reality of death, all due to the imaginary problem whipped up by the only president in our history who refused to accept the results of a free and fair election. Real problem: the same man – the only man in our history – who incited violence rather than carry on the American tradition of a peaceful transfer of power – is once again whipping up the same imaginary problem. Real problem: his maga-party is enabling his lie.

Yes, we have a real problem.

Keep in mind, the facade that the dictator- wanna-be is a successful business man is imaginary. Reality television is, well, not reality. Neither is his business acumen. His six bankruptcies are real. His grift is real.

His 34 felony convictions are real. His civil conviction for rape is real. The multiple felony counts he faces are real. What’s imaginary? That the charges against him are politically motivated. He would have his supporters believe that he bears no responsibility for his actions. That is a real problem.

His love of the world’s dictators is real. The world’s dictators love him, too. He is, as those who know him well and served in his administration, famously easy to manipulate. Their cautionary tale to us is not imaginary. They are screaming for his supporters, for the nation, to wake up and see what is real before it is too late. The consequences of his ill-intent are and continue to be very real.

And so, we vote. And the question we answer with our ballots is whether or not we are capable of discerning between what is real from what is imaginary, what has substance and and what is falsehood, whether or not we will step forward as a real democracy or step off into the dark fascist imagination of a tired angry reality tv star, a fabrication of a man whose only gift seems to be creating imaginary problems.

Our vote can be an actual solution to the wanna-be-dictator’s abundant imaginary problems.

Either way the consequences of our vote will be real.

read Kerri’s blogpost about IMAGINARY PROBLEMS